Family, Food, gardening, home, Uncategorized

Too Hot to Handle

27 Comments

I didn’t start cooking until I moved into my first apartment. My mom doesn’t like to cook and when I became a vegetarian at 16, the few things she could cook became out of bounds for me.  She had 2 cookbooks all the time I was growing up, Joy of Cooking and The Betty Crocker Cookie Book.  So I wasn’t surprised when she gave me a copy of Joy when I set up my first kitchen.  It wasn’t too useful for a beginning vegetarian so it was joined quickly by Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Laurel’s Kitchen.

I didn’t cook with too many exotic ingredients back then – nothing even remotely “different” made its way into my mom’s kitchen so I didn’t have any experience with the out-of-the-ordinary. I don’t remember the first time I cooked with a jalapeno or any other hot pepper, but it’s been at least 30+ years and now they are a staple at our house.

So you would think that I know better by now about handling hot peppers. Just one Mucho Nacho (a type of jalapeno).  I cut the seeds and inner veins out, thinking about the capsicum all the while.  Then I apparently turned my brain off, because after I dumped the peppers into the pan, I just kept working instead of washing my hands.  Within 10 minutes I had touched my lips in two places, licked a finger and gotten the juice under my thumbnail as well.  Paper towel soaked in milk helped the lips, held the thumb in the milk for 5 minutes and then drank the rest.  Aaaahhhhh.

What lesson do you wish you would learn? Or took you too long to learn?

 And does anybody need a hot pepper or two on Sunday???

27 thoughts on “Too Hot to Handle”

  2. Procrastination is my cryptonite.

    You would think that I would learn that there are just some things I won’t want to do “later” any more than I do “now”.

    Just when I think I’m winning that battle (dangerous in itself, because this lulls me into a foolish sense I’ve already done something), WHAM!

    FYI hot stuff: sugar works in the mouth/lips too. No idea if it would help fingers.

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  3. I am just way squeamish about cooking with hot peppers, so I have hardly ever done it. I now have a (green) jalapeno that came in a bag of discounted misc. veggies – I suppose I should just dice it small and use half of it in soup, or an egg bake (instead of the can of chopped mild green chilis)? Other ideas, baboons?

    What is it taking me too long to learn? – let me count the ways!
    – Don’t get on Facebook “for just 5 minutes” when I have other things that need to get done.
    – Let other people workout their own problems, I should just work on mine.
    – If I take on some new role or responsibility, something else has to go. (This also goes for bringing in new books or clothing, just about anything really – there is only so much space in this house.)

    I’m sure I’ll think of others!

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  4. OT: I thought this morning of another newspaper I’d like to add to yesterday’s discussion:
    I’ve really enjoyed the Minnesota Women’s Press – started, I believe, in the mid-80s and went several years ago from weekly to monthly, with a magazine format. I miss it, should probably subscribe but I have too many magazines to read already…

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    1. I pick up the Women’s Press at my local library. I don’t get every issue, but enjoy the ones I do pick up. Also have found some great service providers (including my recent house painters) from their classifieds and lists of women-owned businesses.

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  5. Along with procrastination…saying “no” to things. I am better at it now than I used to be – and am getting better at not feeling like I am letting someone down when I do say no. Still hard, though. And sometimes means I am saying no to things I really want to do, even though I know in my heart of hearts I don’t have time/ability/fill-in-the-blank to actually do the thing.

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  7. My son loves hot peppers. I can’t imagine how many bottles of sriracha he goes through in a month. Sometimes my eyes water when I eviscerate Serrano peppers. Perhaps I need goggles.

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  8. I wish I could learn to not take everything personally and not get emotionally engaged in difficult situations. For instance at work: my position was eliminated and my tasks were transferred to a different office last week. When we learned about this in mid-June, there was a plethora of available positions internally because of an acquisition. I applied for 8 jobs that I’m qualified for (I believe).

    I’ve had only 3 interviews and have no idea what’s going on. I work for a great company, but HR is ridiculously slow and I have no idea if I’m even a serious candidate for any of them. All I know is that I see a lot of YOUNG people being hired for the most of the positions I applied for in the past 3 years (14). So I’m feeling a bit like chopped liver here. 😦

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  9. if sunday is book club i’m in chicago

    hot peppers yes i can spin by after work next week maybe

    i laughed at renee’s garden pictures yesterday

    bens bales are home to 15 tomato/peppers and they are each pretty wimpy in comparison to hers
    tiny tiny peppers and one little bell pepper
    tiny tomatoes

    maybe i got a dwarf inducing bale fro m ben
    maybe i’m doing it wrong

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    3. All the vegetables are slow here this summer. We decided it is time to go the local stockyards and get a pickup load of their composted manure. We haven’t put any on for about 3 years. They charge a whopping $25 a load, and they use their own Bobcat to load it. It has to go on in the fall as it is too “hot” to put on in the spring. It needs a winter to degrade. It has a nice texture and spreads on easily. Then husband tills it in.

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    5. I wondered where those two dwarf bales went. 15 plants in two bales?? Wow— they could be a little crowded.

      Kelly’s cherry tomatoes are producing well, but they’re smaller ‘bushier’ plants than usual.

      We got some pepper plants from a friend this spring. They’re making nice slender, pointed peppers. She said they were yellow peppers. They started green, then turned yellow and now are turning reddish. But they’re not big round things so we don’t know what they are. How do we know when they’re “done”??

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  10. Way late for Rise and Shine tonight!

    I have a beautiful batch of Anaheim peppers that are long and a rich green. My Fresno peppers have set on and are looking good as well. We have been eating the banana peppers in various dishes. The first tomatoes are ripe, as well.

    I roast the Anaheims and Fresnos on the grill then peel them and freeze them for use the rest of the year. They add a nice slow burn to several dishes, like Jambalya, Poole, Chili, and Cashew chicken, as well as the generic stir fry.

    I have had several “burning” accidents with them, though. In a move similar to VS’s, I Rubbed My Eyes. Never again. Then I tried roasting them in the oven. Every breath burned and my eyes ran for an hour. And then there was the coughing. Lesson: only roast outdoors on the grill.

    I will not be at BBC Sunday—I have another group to attend. By the next one, I should have plenty of time to read the selection as I lay helplessly in bed recovering from knee surgery (she said dramatically).

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  11. Single mindedness is a necessity for a writer, but I’ be found cooking is a collaborative and creativity activity where a premium needs to be put on keeping ones senses in the present moment, is key! Yes?

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